The Dog Ate My Blog

Let’s face it, some things have not changed all that much from our school years. Sometimes — okay, oftentimes — we put off working on the things that stretch our brains and stress us out. Judging by the conversations I’ve had with clients over the past 14 years or so, writing website content is a good case in point.

Lest someone say that we just don’t understand how hard it is, let me come clean by telling you that this article, due several days ago, kept getting brushed aside and still sat as an empty document on my desktop for hours this morning. Add interruptions and an endless To-Do list and — well, I “get” the excuses.

This does not change the fact that earning a grade requires you to do the work. A website is no different. Add no value to it, and you can be assured little value will come from it. I’m sorry, but content must be added regularly to your website/blog for it to be effective. This is not my will, but that of your visitors and the search engines (Google). And of course good grades and quality website traffic alike are dependent on a great many factors. Here are some quick tips for ‘making the grade.’

Block out time, and everything around you, for creating new content regularly.

Review past responses to questions that come in via email or phone, or that your sales staff identify as common. Any answer you give, when slightly modified, could become a blog post or an FAQ.

Keep notes, scribbles, photos, or audio recordings of ideas you have about posts as you think of them. They don’t have to be finished in one sitting.

Use tools like Evernote, Catch, Dropbox (Affiliate link so you get extra space and so do I.), or Google Docs to store your subject ideas. And don’t forget that you can dictate to modern smart phones. Try it!

If you are still reading, then clearly you know how important all this is to your business. Now, what are you going to do about it? Don’t make this a New Year’s resolution, make this a New Year’s Marketing Imperative. Oh…and keep your dog away from your blog.